Engagement with climate issues among young women is declining sharply, according to a recent survey. Meanwhile, issues such as healthcare, education, and crime are being prioritized increasingly higher.
A recently conducted survey reveals that young Swedish women are becoming significantly less passionate about modern left-leaning values such as climate alarmism.
According to the report Youth Focus 2025, climate issues have lost ground among Sweden’s young people. In 2019, 51 percent of young women considered climate the most important issue.
In this year’s report, the corresponding figure has dropped to 15 percent. Among young men, engagement has fallen from 34 to 13 percent.
– We don’t talk much about climate, only in school, says 15-year-old Disa Magnusson in Södertälje, a city south of Stockholm, to publicly funded broadcaster SVT.
At the same time, the survey shows that young people today are more engaged in societal issues that affect their daily lives. Healthcare tops the list, followed by education and crime.
– In this year’s report, we see a generation that feels concern about certain societal issues and wants to act for society’s benefit here and now, says Sofia Rasmussen, CEO of Rasmussen Analysis.
The same survey also demonstrates declining interest in feminism and gender equality among the country’s youth.
Vänstern fortsätter att tappa mark bland unga.
Allt färre uppger att de prioriterar ”miljön, klimatet, jämställdhet eller feminism”.
Klimatengagemanget har rasat särskilt kraftigt bland unga kvinnor: från 51 % (2019) till 15 % (2025).
”Generation Greta” är död och begraven. pic.twitter.com/9wSMOkXvpK
— Herr Husis (@HerrHusis) October 9, 2025
New priorities
Several of the young women who expressed themselves in the survey report that they feel greater trust in more conservative parties. Parties that profile themselves around more traditional values, with emphasis on order and security.
This is a development that could significantly impact Sweden’s future politics, especially when a generation that previously often identified with supposedly progressive left-wing values now shows a shift in interest and engagement.
Interviews with young women show that issues such as friendship, love, and high school are prioritized higher than climate.
– People probably think they won’t be alive then, says Disa Magnusson about why climate issues don’t engage as much as before.
The survey demonstrates a clear shift toward issues perceived as more urgent and directly relevant in the daily lives of today’s youth.
At the same time, interest in long-term societal problems remains, but engagement has changed both in form and expression.
About the Youth Focus Survey
Youth Focus 2025, produced for the tenth consecutive year by the King's Foundation for Young Leadership (Konungens stiftelse Ungt Ledarskap) and Rasmussen Analys, aims to highlight young people's values and attitudes and to strengthen their role in society and working life.
This year's report is based on responses from 1,280 people, of which 1,018 are young people between 15–29 years old. The survey was conducted during the period May 13–20, 2025. To enable comparisons with other age groups, the survey also collected 262 responses from people born before 1995.
This makes it possible to distinguish what is unique to the younger generation from broader societal trends, while also enabling an analysis of how older respondents perceive and describe today's youth.
Source: Youth Focus 2025
